Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Douthat's Fan-Boy Crush on Chris Christie

UPDATE A two-fer from Ross Douthat today! Usually we have to settle for one laugher from him a day but today it's a veritable Stewart-Colbert back-to-backer.

In his latest blog post just up he says that he's changing his mind about the Clint and the Invisible Obama episode. Now he think it might have been a positive, after all. Note the very thin evidence from one new poll: A lot of watchers called it the highlight of the convention, edging the Romney speech. Naturally, he misses several nuances. For one thing, most Democrats and other non-GOPers would agree--it WAS the highlight of the convention. Also one reason the Romney speech had so little impact was because Clint and the reaction to him stepped all over it. Numerous polls have now confirmed that the GOP got NO bounce from their convention. Ross, wonder why?

Earlier: We know you usually need a good morning laugh, so here's Ross Douthat's blog post at the NYT on last night's DNC. You'd think Chris Christie was FDR and Reagan rolled into one: Julián Castro, the mayor of San Antonio, "was perfectly charming and perfectly forgettable: A minor league talent with some major league potential rather than a Democratic version of Chris Christie.. Indeed, it’s hard to find many Democratic versions of Christie in the lineup of speakers for this week. The Republican convention seemed drawn up to highlight the party’s deep bench and many rising stars."

More: "the convention’s primetime lineup seems designed to leave the impression that the Democratic Party has a past and a present, but not much of a future. In Tampa, there was a palpable sense among the delegates that though Mitt Romney might not be all they could hope for in a nominee, their party’s future was looking unexpectedly bright.

"Among Democrats, it’s the opposite: They’re all-in for President Obama in part because they’re afraid of waking up the morning after a November defeat with no real idea of where to turn for leadership, or where their party goes from there."

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G.M. is the author of more than a dozen books (click on covers above and below), the longtime editor of Editor & Publisher and until recently a daily writer for The Nation. Email: epic1934@aol.com. Twitter: @GregMitch